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Webster 1913 Edition
Slumber
Slum′ber
,Verb.
I.
[
imp. & p. p.
Slumbered
; p. pr. & vb. n.
Slumbering
.] [OE.
slombren
, slumberen
, slumeren
, AS. slumerian
, fr. sluma
slumber; akin to D. sluimeren
to slumber, MHG. slummern
, slumen
, G. schlummern
, Dan. slumre
, Sw. slumra
, Goth. slawan
to be silent.] 1.
To sleep; especially, to sleep lightly; to doze.
Piers Plowman.
He that keepeth Israel shall neither
slumber
nor sleep. Ps. cxxi. 4.
2.
To be in a state of negligence, sloth, supineness, or inactivity.
“Why slumbers Pope?” Young.
Slum′ber
,Verb.
T.
1.
To lay to sleep.
[R.]
Wotton.
2.
To stun; to stupefy.
[Obs.]
Spenser.
Slum′ber
,Noun.
Sleep; especially, light sleep; sleep that is not deep or sound; repose.
He at last fell into a
slumber
, and thence into a fast sleep, which detained him in that place until it was almost night. Bunyan.
Fast asleep? It is no matter;
Enjoy the honey-heavy dew of
Enjoy the honey-heavy dew of
slumber
. Shakespeare
Rest to my soul, and
slumber
to my eyes. Dryden.
Webster 1828 Edition
Slumber
SLUM'BER
,Verb.
I.
1.
To sleep lightly; to doze. He that keepth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. Ps. 121.2.
To sleep. Slumber is used as synonymous with sleep, particularly in the poetic and eloquent style.3.
To be in a state of negligence, sloth, supineness or inactivity. Why slumbers Pope?Definition 2024
slumber
slumber
English
Alternative forms
- slumbre (obsolete)
Noun
slumber (plural slumbers)
- A very light state of sleep, almost awake.
- John Bunyan
- He at last fell into a slumber, and thence into a fast sleep, which detained him in that place until it was almost night.
- William Shakespeare
- Fast asleep? It is no matter; / Enjoy the honey-heavy dew of slumber.
- John Dryden
- Rest to my soul, and slumber to my eyes.
- John Bunyan
- (figuratively) A state of ignorance or inaction.
- 2009, Ben-Ami Scharfstein, Art without borders: a philosophical exploration of art and humanity
- Marcel Duchamp's urinal and readymades seemed in the beginning to be insider jokes or jokelike paradoxes meant to awaken people from their aesthetic slumbers.
- 2009, Ben-Ami Scharfstein, Art without borders: a philosophical exploration of art and humanity
Derived terms
Translations
a very light state of sleep
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Verb
slumber (third-person singular simple present slumbers, present participle slumbering, simple past and past participle slumbered)
- (intransitive) To be in a very light state of sleep, almost awake.
- Bible, Psalms cxxi. 4
- He that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.
- Bible, Psalms cxxi. 4
- (intransitive) To be inactive or negligent.
- (transitive, obsolete) To lay to sleep.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Wotton to this entry?)
- (transitive, obsolete) To stun; to stupefy.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Spenser to this entry?)
Translations
to be in a very light state of sleep
to be inactive or negligent
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